News Corp executive goes back to school

News Corp executive goes back to school - The West Australian

Former New York City schools chief Joel Klein left to run News Corp's education division but has spent much of the past year defending boss Rupert Murdoch in the phone hacking scandal that has rocked the British media.

The investigation is continuing, but Mr Klein is back in New York to launch Amplify, News Corp's entry into the burgeoning field of digital learning.

Amplify and AT&T will fund a pilot project that will put tablet computers in students' hands in the coming school year.

None of the schools selected to participate will have to pay for the program; profits will come down the road.

Students will use the tablets at school and home, and the system will track their progress and tailor lessons to each student's level.

"What we're trying to do is really become a hub for serious thinking and trying to make sure that technology is a positive force," Mr Klein said. "Because I've long said that just giving a kid a computer isn't going to change the game."

As chancellor of New York City's 1.1 million-pupil public school system from 2002 to 2010, Klein championed policies like increasing the number of charter schools and closing schools deemed to be failing. He earlier served as assistant US attorney-general in charge of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in the Clinton administration.

Mr Klein said he has been working full-time at Amplify since mid-June after News Corp hired general counsel Gerson Zweifach to focus on continuing fallout from the hacking scandal, which broke about six months after Mr Klein started working at Amplify.

He would not discuss the scandal other than to say: "The company hired a world-class general counsel. I can go back full-time to something that I'm passionate about."

Mr Klein, 65, is from a textbook generation. He pointed to bookshelves lining his office in News Corp's midtown headquarters but said today's students are less attached to the printed page.

"These kids are so used to a world of social networks and data aggregation," Mr Klein said.

He said digital materials can engage students in history, science and other subjects.

"If games will get them engaged in the work and excited about it, isn't that great? If they're educational games," Mr Klein said. "I don't want them to sit there and play Minesweeper."

Amplify will incorporate the student assessment software business Wireless Generation, which News Corp acquired in 2010.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli rejected a $US27 million ($A25.7 million) contract with Wireless Generation to build a data system for tracking student performance last year, in part because of the phone hacking scandal. But Mr Klein said Wireless Generation now provides services to three million students in all 50 states.

Amplify joins a growing educational technology field that includes startups as well as traditional publishers like McGraw-Hill.

According to investment fund GSV Capital, the number of companies that received funding to develop K-12 educational technology doubled from 2010 to 2011.